Laurie's Tennis articles

Last week I had the opportunity to witness a player who could be a new star in the making. Her name is Mona Barthel from Germany and she received a confidence boost by winning the WTA Paris Indoor event at the Stade de Coubertin.   Mona won the title in style winning all of her matches in straight sets at the business end of the tournament with an incredible display of attacking tennis which the Parisians enjoyed immensely. A friend of mine who works for the WTA tour told me 12 months ago to check out Mona Barthel, he was convinced that she is the most talented of the German players coming through and has the most potential if she believed in herself and things fell into place.   That’s the beauty and difficult thing about top level sport, identifying potential and hopefully watching it come to fruition.   Some players can take a bit longer to realise it, but what that means is when they are ready to fulfil their potential, they are mature enough to stay th...

I returned to London today after attending the WTA Paris Indoors (Open GDF Suez) at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in the south west corner of Paris. It is the 2nd year in a row I attended the event.   Last year the tournament celebrated 20 years with a special exhibition with tournament Director Amelie Mauresmo, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Martina Navratilova; and Angelique Kerber won her first title in a thriller of a final against Marion Bartoli in front of a raucous partisan crowd. I wasn’t expecting a repeat of that sort of drama and excitement but it was an enjoyable tournament; and for the 2nd year in a row, an exciting young German player won the event, the sort of win that can lead to bigger and better things in her career. I attended the quarterfinals onwards and four good matches were lined up.   The first between Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.   The 1st set went in a flash, Safarova started play...